ITT Corp. and Cablevision Systems Inc. will buy Madison Square Garden, two professional sports teams and a regional cable television service from Viacom Inc. for nearly $1.1 billion, sources close to the transaction said Saturday. ITT and Cablevision will pay cash, sources said. Their bid, which had been raised modestly, beat one from Tele-Communications Inc., the nation's largest telecommunications operation, which has had protracted and tense dealings with Viacom.

NEW YORK -- The Lakers ended their seven-game Grammy trip the same way they started it. Another loss. The New York Knicks beat the Lakers, 110-103, behind 35 points from Carmelo Anthony at Madison Square Garden. Jodie Meeks had 24 point while Pau Gasol and Manny Harris each had 18 points for the Lakers (16-29), who went 2-5 on their longest trip of the season. It wasn't a matchup for the ages. Not since 1960 had the Knicks and Lakers played each other with both teams 10 or more games below .500, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

Ask Louisville Coach Rick Pitino or Syracuse's Jim Boeheim about Madison Square Garden or Big East Conference founder Dave Gavitt. Even the tight-lipped Boeheim becomes sentimental and is apt to weave a story about a Big East classic. "I would have been happy if someone said, 'Coach, you're going to coach Syracuse and be in this league 10 years,'" Boeheim said. "'We'll give you 10 pretty good years, but that's it.' I'd have said, 'OK, I'll take it,' right then. It just has been unbelievable.

Irving Mitchell Felt, 84, a developer, executive and philanthropist who was the guiding force behind the latest incarnation of Madison Square Garden, died Thursday at his Los Angeles home. The former chairman of the board of Republic Corp. and onetime head of the National Conference of Christians and Jews also had been active politically on both coasts. He had been a major fund-raiser for the late Sen.